With a little trepidation, my gal pal Alice and I headed off to Big Sur recently for a hike and a bite. We’ve been delighting in Big Sur’s hills — and eccentric curves, both literal and metaphorical — for 15 years now, but every couple of years, the area’s rugged beauty pays for its charms with natural disasters, a major slide here and a blazing fire there. The huge and freshly doused Soberanes Fire was this year’s model.

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Luckily, the only things burning in Andrew Molera State Park this time were our thighs, pushing uphill on the short-but-steep stretch of the Hidden Trail. The trail isn’t hidden all that well; it’s part of the River Trail/Hidden Trail/Ridge Trail loop (3.6 miles), one of the many trail choices on which to get gleefully loopy at Molera.

Our trek went from grassy meadow to shady oak glens to Molera Ridge, where a 360-degree view took in canyons and coast, then back down to the river. That big Big Sur view is what it’s all about: You see the beautiful beach cove to the west, Pico Blanco mountain to your right and delicious vistas all in between.

There are scenic passages through old oaks that have lost all pretension of vanity, lounging and cracking in gnarled-limb languor. There are also lots of other sweet and easy hikes to the beguiling beach cove, if flat is your walking urge.

Follow up a brisk Big Sur hike with a stop at the beloved Big Sur Bakery, where the sandwiches are made with housemade sourdough. (Photo: Tom Bentley)

Being big on rewards, we later took in the goods at the Big Sur Bakery, a local institution housed in a 1930s building, surrounded by whimsical plants and artwork. I had a dense, oven-roasted turkey sandwich on housemade sourdough — besides being an unpretentiously upscale eatery, this is, after all, a bakery.

The perfectly toasted, thick sourdough slices that hosted that sandwich could have had the Sunday newspaper tucked between them and it would have tasted good. The delicious, sassy salad of mixed greens had enough garlic and onions to have later brought down a condor. Alice was more than content with her eggs, home fries (bacon switched out for avocado slices) and that persuasive sourdough toast.

From plateaus to plates, Big Sur was its usual, deeply nourishing self.

If You Go

Andrew Molera State Park: Day use fee is $10 per car. 47555 Highway One, Big Sur (20 miles south of Carmel); www.parks.ca.gov